Sydney to get first vinyl pressing plant

A state–the-art vinyl factory will open in Sydney this June – with the capacity to press three million records per year.

As Tone Deaf reported yesterday (January 24), the new plant will include full analog mastering, a Neumann disc cutting system, stamper making facility and fully automated record presses. There will also be a manual press for specialty records (like picture discs, split and splatter colours) as well as a record jacket making machine.

Vincent Chen, who previously worked as a mechanical engineer at Germany’s leading printing presses, will manage the yet-to-be named factory. “We are bringing European quality record pressing back to Australia”, Chen said. “There will be no further need to manufacture product overseas and pay for air freight or endure long turnaround times.

“We have assembled a specialist team with previous technical experience to make this a reality – our plating manager was head EMI’s plating department before moving across to EMI’s CD factory Digital Audio Technologies Australia to head up the plating department there.”

Chen explains that the factory’s new plating manager will use “the EMI formulas which he has adapted over his many years experience for best quality.”

The plant is expected to open in June 2017. It will join two other Australian pressing plant facilities – Melbourne’s Zenith and Adelaide’s Roundabout.

Last week, it was announced that Jamaica’s last vinyl factory Tuff Gong International – founded by Bob Marley in 1965 – would start pressing records again years inactivity.

The vinyl industry is currently enjoying a massive boom in sales, with vinyl on course to become a billion dollar industry for the first time since the ‘80s.